Increased prevalence of hybrid epithelial/mesenchymal state and enhanced phenotypic heterogeneity in basal breast cancer.

ABSTRACT: Intra-tumoral phenotypic heterogeneity promotes tumor relapse and therapeutic resistance and remains an unsolved clinical challenge. Decoding the interconnections among different biological axes of plasticity is crucial to understand the molecular origins of phenotypic heterogeneity. Here, we use multi-modal transcriptomic data-bulk, single-cell, and spatial transcriptomics-from breast cancer cell lines and primary tumor samples, to identify associations between epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and luminal-basal plasticity-two key processes that enable heterogeneity. We show that luminal breast cancer strongly associates with an epithelial cell state, but basal breast cancer is associated with hybrid epithelial/mesenchymal phenotype(s) and higher phenotypic heterogeneity. Mathematic

SUBMITTER: Sahoo S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11225361 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature